Do You Have a Bad Credit Score? So Did I.

Hi my name is Mason. I’ve recently been writing a series of articles for Consumers Advocate.org about my quest to improve my credit.

Anyway, long story short, a few months ago I was trying to buy a car and was surprised to learn my score had taken an unexplained subterranean plunge since the last time I checked.

I had more than a couple of questions. How did this happen? And more importantly, was there anything I can do about it?

A colleague mentioned a firm called Lexington Law. Well, that was almost five months ago and I am pleased to announce that as of today my official FICO score has gone up 48 points!

Here’s how it happened:

I learned that the credit reports I was getting for free online only told half the story. About five minutes into my first call a friendly representative from Lexington Law identified four items that were adversely affecting my score. He performed a soft pull of my credit so it wouldn’t do any harm. (All this before I’d given them a dime, or any credit card or bank information.)

Lexington Law identified four items that were adversely affecting my score before I’d given them a dime, or any credit card or bank information.

Two of the items I was already aware of, they were late payments. The other two were accounts in collection that I had no idea I owed! Apparently my score was tarnished by two doctor's visits from 10 years ago where I hadn’t paid the copay. And since I’d moved several times since then, they must not have been able to notify me.

I had no idea I owed! It was a crash course in all the things that determine credit health.

Lexington Law put me in contact with the correct agencies and I paid the two small fees that were dragging down my score. They then made sure the two agencies reported the accounts had been paid as soon as possible. Just like that, the two negative marks were removed from my credit report!

Next, the late payments. Since they were correct, I assumed nothing could be done. Lexington Law showed me there were several options they had in communicating with creditors and credit bureaus to get these marks removed as well. However, this process would take a bit more time.

I paid the two small fees that were dragging down my score and, just like that, the two negative marks were removed.

While Lexington Law worked on this problem they told me what I had to do on my end in the meantime. Helpful representatives explained to me how to use their online portal, particularly the “report analysis” feature.

The report analysis is a crash course in all the things that determine your credit health, alongside a snapshot of how your credit report stacks up. As Lexington Law worked on the late payments, this feature showed me the easy things I could do that were most likely to improve my credit. In my case, it was concentrating on paying my credit cards that had the highest utilization ratio.

So the removal of the two items, combined with a few months of smart, more targeted payments, and my score shot from 650 to 698. I’m finally scratching back at the door of “good” range. And when Lexington Law handles the late payments, I’m sure it’ll go even higher!

If you can relate to this story, get in touch with our advertising partner Lexington Law. Within minutes they’ll be able to tell you if they can help.